Many consider two of the most valuable companies in the world, Microsoft and Apple, to be at different ends of a spectrum. While different in their broad target market, they compete intensely in similar markets like operating systems, consumer hardware and enterprise software. It’s little surprise, then, that their respective leaders have looked at each other with disdain throughout history.
Big Macs and chips
Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs compared Microsoft to the fast food chain McDonald’s in an interview for the 1995 PBS documentary series ‘Triumph of the Nerds‘.
Quote of the day
This article is part of TechRadar Pro’s QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here.
In a set of scathing comments, he said the company that Bill Gates founded was only able to enjoy its reach and success due to a “Saturn-5 booster called IBM”. Gates used the opportunity granted by IBM outsourcing the operating system for the first IBM PC to Microsoft, called MS-DOS, with Gates retaining the rights to license the software and “create more opportunity”, as Jobs phrased it.
Although he praised this aspect of the business – reiterating that Microsoft deserves its success – Jobs was adamant the firm doesn’t add any originality into the broader ecosystem and isn’t interested in the user experience. They have no “spirit” he said, and described their products as “very pedestrian”.
From enemies to friends
Despite the decades-long sparring that Gates and Jobs engaged in, they eventually underwent a multi-stage reconciliation process that eventually led to a very different kind of relationship before Jobs’ death in 2013.
In today’s technology landscape, the two companies enjoy less of a heated rivalry that peaked during the operating system wars in the 1990s – with each enjoying a moat (Microsoft in the enterprise space and Apple in the consumer space).
Instead, they now compete in domains like AI and cloud computing alongside plenty of other Silicon Valley rivals. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t the occasional jab – like outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook dunking on the Surface Pro.
